@gordon This is my Linux "rule of thumb" at work again - it looks like hardware issues always trump any software bugs in Linux - particularly with older machines like mine. Actually this will be my go to point for troubleshooting from now on!
What I've noticed is that these finer/intermittent hardware issues show up much better on Linux than windows - windows either hides them or just works around them.
I remember I bought some new ram for my laptop. Same laptop I have now - it's 7 years old & chugging along quite nicely! The windows partition was working fine but the Ubuntu partition was freezing all the time - sometimes after 15 minutes - sometimes after an hour. This was the first time I installed a dual boot setup with Linux & I was like Linux sucks big time! Then I read on a forum that it could be bad ram. I was like - how could it be bad ram - I just bought it a week ago! It suggested to do a memtest to check the ram - and what do you know - the ram was faulty - but it had just started to go bad due to timing/voltage issues. I was like WOW! Linux is awesome! From then on, I nuked my windows partition & just used exclusively Linux from then on!
My experience is that Linux uses the available system hardware to the max where possible (proper drivers available, etc) - that's why it breathes new life into older machines but on the flip side - it also brings to the forefront any bad/flakey hardware much sooner than windows. If I was still running a windows partition, the monitor problem wouldn't appear & then one day the monitor would just stop working. If you're proactive about remedying hardware issues like me - Linux is a Godsend!
After all of these experiences - I'm a Linux convert for life! I will never install a windows partition on my system ever again
PS Open source devs really catch too much flack for bugs/issues on Linux where the fault also lies with poor hardware/firmware or proprietary drivers - that's just my humble opinion.